venerdì 31 ottobre 2014

While still studying Oriental Languages at Cairo University, Dina joined El Warsha Theater Troupe and discovered her passion for music, learning to sing a wide variety of traditional genres. With the help of her tutor, Maged Soliman, she began to explore the full potential of her voice and also participated in many workshops with independent musicians both in Egypt and beyond, including Grammy award-winning musician Fathy Salama and singer-songwriter Kamilya Jubran. Recently, Dina has been the lead performer of an ensemble of musicians that she refers to as “a growing project”. They have performed extensively in the past 2 years, fusing local and global styles of music. Dina continues to be inspired by the heritage and identity of Cairo, where she was born and raised, but that inspiration has taken her far beyond the limits of her home city. She is now taking part in “the Nile Project”, a musical and environmental initiative that brings together musicians and thinkers from all over the Nile Valley. She has also won an award from the Rolex Arts Initiative for promising international artists, which gives her a year of mentoring with the renowned Brazilian singer, Gilberto Gil. This major turning point in Dina’s career will see her performing alongside Gil at a number of international music festivals across the world. (Source : http://dinaelwedidi.com/)

martedì 28 ottobre 2014

Zaman al-Zaatar (Sign of Thyme) is an oriental fusion band led by Yacoub Abu Ghosh, a widely acknowledged composer and bass guitarist who plays in Jordan and throughout the region. Ghosh is the co-founder of various other performance projects too, including Music Matbakh, RUM, Tareq al-Nasser and Black Iris.

Formed in 2004, the band has three albums under its belt: “Like All People” (2005), “Zad” (2007), and their most recent, “Al-Khubz” (2012), which was released exclusively online and distributed for free.

Zaman Al Zaatar is an ongoing attempt to express - through music - the extreme diversity of influences that one is subjected to by living in this place (Amman) and time, and by that portraying the capability of spiritual and emotional growth within the society in Amman and the whole region. The beauty in Zaman Al Zaatar’s music could be a reflection of every face one may encounter on the streets of our cities.

The band has performed in many venues and festivals locally and regionally and enjoys a considerable following in most big cities in the middle east.

As a live act Zaman Al Zaatar employs a unique arrangement of western and Middle Eastern instruments to properly accentuate the fusion of styles that combined produce the sound of the band. They also rely strongly on the improvisational abilities of the band members to add color to the band’s performance and insure that the same show is never played the same way twice.. Yacoub Abu Ghosh, Bass Guitar

Zaman Al Zaatar's band leader and co-founder, Yacoub is a well established and respected composer and bass guitarist in Jordan and in the region, he is also one of the few who are dedicated to this field with close to 16 years of experience, he performed all over Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with many different musical outfits such as Music Matbakh, RUM Tareq Al Nasser and Black Iris. Yacoub recently released his first personal album entitled As Blue As the Rivers of Amman. He studied law at the University of Jordan & worked as a journalist for the Jordan Times daily and other publications such as JO magazine before becoming a full time musician. Ahmad Barakat, Oud

Another co-founder of the group, Ahmad is a true prodigy with his instrument, with excellent improvisational skills and vast theoretical and practical knowledge even at his fairly young age. Ahmed played with a number of renowned groups and musicians in Amman and Beirut such as Jafra and Shahadeen Ya Baladna. Ahmad is a civil engineer; he graduated from the University of Jordan in 2007. Nasser Salameh, percussion

Nasser is an excellent self-taught musician, specializing in Middle Eastern and world percussion with a noticeable talent that has led him to participate in many festivals in Europe and the Middle East. He was awarded the first prize for best musician in the pan-Jordanian Universities’ competition in 1999 and 2000. He performed with many groups and musical outfits, such as Rum Tareq Al Nasser, Nawazen and Karloma. He also worked as a percussion teacher at the National Conservatory of Music in Palestine. Yarub Smeirat, Violin

One of the most recognized violinists in Jordan, in addition to performing with numerous musical outfits locally and internationally and in both the traditional Arabic, pop, rock, jazz and classical styles, Yarub recently produced a unique show where he lead a considerable ensemble performing his own compositions and some classical Arabic tunes. Yarub is most well known for his unique abilities in improvisation on traditional maqams and the fluidity of his expression. Maan Al Sayyed, Percussion

Maan is a young percussionist who has already accumulated considerable experience performing with many bands and outfits including Sharq, Shoo Hal Ayyam and Makadi Nahhas. A true backbone of groove and rhythm who masters many percussion styles and instruments from the Spanish cajon to the traditional Arabic riq.

domenica 19 ottobre 2014

Since a young age, Dorsaf discovered her passion for music and her talent: a delighting and powerful voice.
Being a genius child, she applied herself seriously to develop her
talent in order to take all chances to succeed. Thanks to her
grand-mother, Dorsaf could obtain the best of the local singing and oral
tradition. Helped by her father ,a very keen music-lover and
violinist, who supervised her and encouraged her to better advance, she
succeeded to pick the attention of the greatest Tunisian composers while
still very young. After graduating from The Musical Academy of
Tunis, she started an academic course in the renown High Institue of
Musiclogy of Tunis. There enchained series of concerts with the
greatest Arabic and symphonic orchestras and a world tour (Canada,
Spain, Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Jordan, France, Morocco…), which promoted
her enormous talent. Her multiple passages to the temple of the
Arabic music, Cairo Opera, endow her to be well-known and appealed by
such great maestros as Salah Ghoubachi and Selim Sahab. There she
started gleaning prizes and honors: 1992 Best Prize of young Tunisian
talents, 1995 second prize in the Arabic Song Festival in Jordan,and in
1996 the Golden Record of the Tunisian song. She flied then to Paris to begin her Ph.D. in the Paris-Sorbonne University.
In Paris, Dorsaf collaborates with artists of different grounds and
contributes to highly varied international shows. Therefore she enlarges
her experience and enriches her musical and cultural repertoire.
Nowadays Dorsaf creates her own style, not imitating, she sings
passionately melodies written and produced by significant names. Over a year, Dorsaf represents the next growing star, able of bringing a deep change in the music universe
Tough by culture and acquaintances, as by her devotion to her job
and her mastery of oriental and occidental techniques, she symbolizes
the present renaissance of the Arabic renaissance.

(Source : Facebook)

“Open up your mind” – an interview with Dorsaf Hamdani by Charlie CrooijmansWho is Dorsaf Hamdani?“I am a classical Arabic singer from Tunisia and I have a master in
musicology. I participate in this project with my two Norwegian
colleagues (Berit Opheim and Unni Boksasp) and a Palestinian singer (Waed Bouhassoun), which was a nice opportunity for us!”In 1992, Mandani receives the best prices for young talent in
Tunisia, in 1995; the second prize for Arabic Music in Jordan, and in
1996 the gold disc of the Tunisian song (biography Hamdani at Yala).

Do you have your own orchestra?

“Yes, I have an orchestra in Tunisia. The two musicians at the
project are in my band. The violist, Mohamed Lassoued, is my artistic
director and there is the percussionist. I do concerts in Tunisia, I
travel also outside the country for concerts, and I participate in
national and local festivals like this year in the summer.”

What is your usual repertoire?

“It’s a classical repertoire. Like the solo I made at the concert.”

What are the lyrics about?

“My lyrics are very poetic and philosophical. Sometimes we speak
about love and heartbreak. In a way it is all about love, loving people,
love each other. Or love itself, even romantic, or there was one Sufi
poem about Gods love.”

Who are your idols?

“Umm kalthoum, Asmahan, and Fairuz who is still alive. I love this
woman she is not only a singer but also a big icon, and a modern woman.”

How did you get involved with the project in Norway?

“This connection is a collaboration of Accords Croisés, which is my
label and my producers in France, and the Førde Festival. This was an
initiative to put women in front. It is 100 years anniversary of women’s
vote in Norway and also the Arabic revolutions and the Arabic spring.
So it was a nice opportunity and a nice gathering to get to know each
other and to make a mix of cultures together. I think it is a full
success for me. I am really glad that we made it, that we can show that
there is no frontier and that women can be really upfront.”

How do you connect musically to another culture so different from yours?

“The way to connect with another cultures is to open up. That was my
way of being, open up myself, my music, my culture to this other culture
that is quite different. Sometimes we have to keep it simple – in a few
rehearsals we cannot put all the Arabic music, all the rhythms, all the
scales, it is impossible – but it can be also interesting in the way
that we change our way of thinking and we just open up our mind, accept
different codes from other cultures.”

Do you also have the feeling the the music is a reflection of the culture or community?

“Oh yeah, sure. It does. I think the way of being with music. It’s
not only music itself, it’s the way we act. Music is connected to
nature, connected to the human way of being, the language, everything is
connected together. When you recognize this in your own culture – it
took me a long time to see this, but it is obvious now – you can manage
with other cultures, absorb it and make it fluid.”

During the debate I felt that Norway wants to be seen as an
open and free country advocating freedom of speech, while at the border
you could be treated like a suspect. What do you think of this?

“I think it is the same thing everywhere in this world. Humans are
the same everywhere. It is not only Norway or another country. It’s
because there is a war, a revolution, or there is poverty. So people
unconsciously will think, ‘we have to interrogate this person, because
maybe he or she is a terrorist’. It is not very bad that the police asks
questions, it is the police and they have to do their job. So I don’t
see it as a big thing. Because even in Tunisia, in my country, I can be
arrested. Just interrogated by the police, because there is an event and
they are looking for something, a criminal or anything. We don’t have
to see this as a judgement or as an aggression. At my point of view, we
have to open our minds and see the positive things. Always!”

Is it easy to do concerts in Tunisia?

“Right now, it’s not a problem to do concerts, but sometimes we are
afraid that maybe somehow there will come a period that fundamentalists
will say, ‘okay now we have power and from this day on you cut
everything, no music, no dance, no sculpture, anything’. So it is a
menace. Right now there is no problem for my music. Maybe for other
arts, yes, like rappers, or exhibitions of arts, with sculptures or nude
photos or things like that, that have been aggressed. I cannot say that
it doesn’t interest me because I am not a sculptor or I am not a
photographer. No, I am an artist so I have to take part of this.”

martedì 7 ottobre 2014

Omar Kamel is a well-traveled contemporary musician from Egypt. His multi-cultural background can be seen in the diversity of music he's written, composed, and produced. It's been said that it would be an injustice to pin him down to one genre - he has produced world-dance instrumentals, electronic pieces, alt-pop songs in English.

Omar Kamel works as a writer, a musician, a freelance video director, graphic designer, and photographer.

Omar is now preparing to release his first album of Arabic songs, provisionally titled 'Mamnou3 El Initizar'. The tracklist so far includes the tracks 'Shafshaq', 'El Wa7sh El Motamadin', 'Be3eed', 'Ghali', 'Tadrib', and a few other tracks :)

Previous to this, Omar has released three retail albums (Shabaka, SunDance, & MoonRise) and two online collections - the freely downloadable electronic album titled "A Fish Called Valis" (under the name The Pink Beam Consortium) and "SeptiC", and album of English Rock/Pop/Alternative tracks (under the bandname GoldFish Euphoria).

He has done work in social awareness and is currently working on various musical projects as well as developing scripts for television & cinema productions

01 Bukowski 02 It's a Dick life03 R&G Coins04 Ubik05 Your Brain06 Conspiracy07 Out there with the flag08 Havn a good time09 Thumb10 Veehicle11Trained to Giggle12 Israelstine13 We've Lost Ragy omar14 But i Tried15 Logic of war

lunedì 6 ottobre 2014

The Invisible Hands is the English translation of the band's original Egyptian Arabic name: El Ayadi El Khafeyya] Taking almost two years to create amidst an unusual and challenging backdrop, this is the new project of Alvarius B. (Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls). Eleven highly crafted songs projected through his typically dark lens of songwriting and a band of brilliant musicians from Egypt, drenched in lovely psychedelic folk arrangements and vocal choruses with a nod to what could have potentially been an album that surfaced decades ago but instead found its way into the future superimposed over historic and tumultuous times in the center of the Arab world. The lead vocals are sung in Arabic by Cherif El Masri and Aya Hemeda.

The Invisible Hands formed in 2011 under Bishop, who writes all the tracks and sings in English on about half of the songs. In October 2012, the band recorded and released their first tracks together on a 7-inch vinyl with “Insect Dilemma/Disallowed, and a stunning cover of a Moroccan folksong from the early 1970s, Lili Twil, on the B-side.

In March, The Invisible Hands released their self-titled debut, an Arabic-English album which is an eclectic grouping of updated oud or lute-driven Arabic folk songs paired with pieces featuring acoustic and electric guitars and ambient noise, plus the occasional rock anthem. And it's good, but it could have been great had it been a bit more adventurous — perhaps more vocal effects, more intricate guitar riffs, more pedals, and more noise elements for increased viscerality.Band members include Cherif El Masri and Aya Hemeda (both former members of popular Egyptian group Eskenderella) with drummer Magued Nagati. On a handful of songs, several other players from the Cairo scene are featured including Sam Shalabi (Shalabi Effect/Land of Kush) on oud and Mohamed Medhat on violin and viola.

Al Tamye Theatre Company is an Egyptian theatre group that seeks alternative means of expressing the Arab human mind and heart, in terms of anxiety, rage, pain, anger, stress, boredom, joy, and all what can be transmitted in a live performance through scenography, poetry, music, light, visuals, video-art, paint, in a rich mix of tools & emotions.

Managed and directed by Salam Yousry, the group was established in 2002, and is composed of more than 15 devoting young artists.

El Tamye Wa7ed Wel Shagar Alwan (Translated: Different trees, same soil), was the group’s career jump in which they performed Sheikh Emam’s music in an engaging theatre performance. The performance has been on demand since 2003, and is still on show!

Most group members are graduates of / students at the Collage of Fine Arts (25 members).

The head-quarters of the Fine Arts Graduates Society is where the theatre group carries out its rehearsals and meetings… Al-Gala’ St. Ramses.

The group aims to create a comprehensive social and cultural atmosphere through the continuous exchange of readings, interests, experiences, and thoughts.